


News from Jasper

by spiderfire



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Item 47 (Marvel Short Film), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hydra (Marvel), Misses Clause Challenge, Pre-HYDRA Reveal, SHIELD, Yuletide, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-02-25 01:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2604263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderfire/pseuds/spiderfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bennie and Claire have dinner after a day at work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	News from Jasper

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cnoocy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cnoocy/gifts).



“Hello?” Claire called as she walked through the door of their apartment. Dressed in her now-standard black pant-suit, she was carrying a bag of take-out. The suit had lost the sharply pressed edge it had had in the morning and there were horizontal creases behind her knees, across the thighs and in the elbows. 

Bennie did not look up. He was slouched down on the overstuffed couch that dominated their living room and he had his feet up on the ottoman His laptop was on his legs and most of the rest of the couch was covered in papers, tablets and empty Chinese takeout containers. The thin white wire of his earphones snaked down his front and disappeared into the clutter.

Claire set the bag down and walked over to the couch, putting her hands on Bennie’s shoulders. She squeezed the muscles, rubbing the knots that had formed from hours of slumping over his laptop. Bennie groaned, leaning forward. “You can do that all night,” he mumbled. 

Claire chuckled, shaking her head. “You,” she said, “are going to get us robbed blind while you are sitting here on this couch.” 

Bennie pulled the earphones from his ears and looked over his shoulder at her with a fond smile. “Hey. You’re late.” 

“Sorry about that,” she said. 

“Blake?” Bennie asked. 

Claire nodded. She glanced at the papers on the couch and tsked. “Bringing classified docs home from work again?” 

Bennie shrugged. “Had to. Can’t do this on SHIELD servers. Ken sent me home with this. ” 

“Not much longer now.” 

Bennie twisted, pulling his shoulders out from under her hands and he looked up sharply, eyebrows raised. “You have news?” 

“Yep. Clear me a seat? I’m starved. Lunch with Sitwell was seven hours and five time-zones ago.” 

“Sure thing,” Bennie replied as he set the laptop aside and collected his papers into haphazard stacks. 

A few minutes later they sat side by side with bowls of chicken korma on their laps, their feet tangled together on the ottoman. Bennie poked at the bowl with his spoon, digging out a lump of chicken. “This from Punjab?” he asked. 

“Naw, that new place on the corner. Madam Curry.” 

“Not bad for such a cheesy name.” 

Claire shrugged. “It’s okay. A bit bland.”

“I swear, your tongue is made of asbestos.” 

Claire grinned, sticking her tongue out at him. 

Bennie shook his head, grinning back. “Later. Tell me. What did Jasper say?” 

Claire elbowed him. 

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Agent Sitwell.” 

Claire set the bowl down in her lap. “You’re gonna get in trouble doing that. The rest of the organization is not so informal as you are in the labs.”

“I know, I know. Tell me the news?”

“I don’t think I should. This has got to be at least level 8 stuff.” 

Bennie waved his spoon at her. “Last I checked, you were level 5.” 

“Well, so are you.” Claire retorted.

“Put us together, we’re level 10. Now, what do you know?”

Claire shook her head at him, smiling. They made such a good team. “There are some satellites that are going up soon, part of the navigation system for something called Insight. Project Insight. You heard of it?”

“Nope.”

“Blake’s been working on it for months. Anyway, once the satellites are in place, HYDRA is going to make its move. Sitwell did not tell me what it was but he assured me it would be hard to miss.” 

Bennie nodded thoughtfully, absently poking at a lump of chicken with his spoon. 

“How soon? Do you know?” 

Claire shook her head. “Weeks, maybe? I know the satellites have to go up and then they need to be calibrated or something.” 

“That explains a few things.” 

“Like what?” 

“Well, as far as I know, I’m the only HYDRA agent Asgard tech group but in Ken’s group – he’s in biochemical – there’s a few. Something is going on over there. The two I know about have been working weird hours. Not really out of the ordinary for bio – they work strange hours anyway - but a week ago, they stopped coming in at all. Someone said they had been assigned to some special project.” He shrugged. “Could be coincidence.” 

“I doubt it. Who are they?” 

“You don’t know them. There’s some guy who does something with cybernetics and then there’s Harvey. He’s the one I complained about who leaves his samples in the break-room fridge? Remember?” 

Claire nodded, swallowing the mouthful of chicken quickly. Bennie had told her about some _twitching_ stuff he had found next to his bottle of Mountain Dew. It had turned her off meat for a week. And then there had been the incident with the blender. 

“Anyway, Harvey does all kinds weird crap. Recently he’s been freezing things. It’s fucking creepy to walk into his lab with all the little jars of mouse-cicles.” Bennie shivered.

“Nasty,” Claire said. 

“Yeh.”

Claire looked back at her bowl, trying to decide if she still wanted to eat it. Maybe in a few moments. “Blake’s been doing Insight stuff for weeks,” she said, “but it’s all been boring ops crap, like everything he does.” 

“Why’d he send you off to…Where was it?” 

“Hawaii.” 

“You flew to Hawaii today?”

“Yes. And I did not even get to see a beach.” 

“What was the point of that?” 

“To make sure the damned satellites were properly loaded. To make sure they were all there.” 

“You have got to be kidding.” 

“Nope. They flew me all the way to Hawaii to count a couple dozen crates.” She shrugged. “Gave me a reason to meet with Sitwell though. He’s going out on the boat.” 

“Boat?”

“That is going to launch the satellites.”

“Ah.”

Claire poked at her meal and decided a spoon of rice may be okay. “Have you thought much about what happens?” she asked. “When HYDRA takes over?”

He shrugged. “I won’t have to bring the most interesting parts of my work home to do in secret. No more trips to the Treehouse.”

“No, not afterwards, during.” 

Bennie looked at her, his brow furrowed. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, when HYDRA comes out from under cover, it’s going to be an out and out war.” 

“I guess.” 

She shook her head. “The rest of SHIELD isn’t like the science division, Bennie. You don’t understand. There are going to be firefights in the hallways of the Triskelion, and every other facility. SHIELD specialists against HYDRA. Do you have any idea what percentage of the people walking through that building are armed?” 

“I never really thought about it.” 

Claire smiled tightly and leaned over to give him a kiss. “I love that about you. Just promise me, when the day comes, you grab one of those blasters and take care of yourself?”

“What are you going to be doing?”

“Sitwell gave me my assignment.” 

Bennie looked at her, biting his lip. He hated the way her job put her at risk. He hated the way she relished the adrenalin rush. 

“Blake,” Claire said. 

“Really? You don’t think he…” 

Claire shook her head. “No.” Then she paused and looked at him contemplatively. “Think you could sneak one of those modified Chitauri blasters out of the lab for me?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Febricant and Lyssa for the beta read.


End file.
